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Metropolitan Borough of Oldham
From the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Borough_of_Oldham The Metropolitan Borough of Oldham is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It has a population of 233,800, and spans 55 square miles (142 km2). The borough is named after its largest town, Oldham, but also includes the outlying towns of Chadderton, Failsworth, Royton and Shaw and Crompton, the village of Lees, and the parish of Saddleworth. For its first 12 years the borough had a two-tier system of local government; Oldham Council shared power with the Greater Manchester County Council. Since the Local Government Act 1985 Oldham Council has effectively been a unitary authority, serving as the sole executive, deliberative and legislative body responsible for local policy, setting council tax, and allocating budget in the district. The Metropolitan Borough of Oldham has two civil parishes and 20 electoral wards. Noted as one of the more unpopular amalgamations of territory created by local government reform in the 1970s, the Oldham borough underwent a £100,000 rebranding exercise in early 2008. There have been calls for the borough to be renamed, but that possibility was dismissed during the rebranding of 2008. For the first 12 years after the county was created in 1974, the borough had a two-tier system of local government, and so Oldham Council shared power with the Greater Manchester County Council. The Greater Manchester County Council, a strategic authority running regional services such as transport, strategic planning, emergency services and waste disposal, comprised 106 members drawn from the ten metropolitan boroughs of Greater Manchester. However, in 1986, along with the five other metropolitan county councils and the Greater London Council, the Greater Manchester County Council was abolished, and most of its powers were devolved to the boroughs. Since 1986, Oldham Council has effectively been a unitary authority that serves as the sole executive, deliberative and legislative body responsible for setting local policy, and allocating budget. Its duties also include setting levels of council tax, monitoring the health service in the borough, providing social care, and providing funding for schools.needed The borough's centre of administration is Oldham Civic Centre.needed civil parishes form the bottom tier of statutory local government; the parish councils are involved in planning, management of town and parish centres, and promoting tourism.22 In 2001, 46,072 people lived in Oldham's two civil parishes—Saddleworth and Shaw and Crompton—20.9% of the borough's population.2324 The rest of the borough is unparished. In 2008 a critical Audit Commission inspection found that Oldham Council’s rate of improvement was ‘adequate’ and gave it a two-star rating. It said the rate of improvement had increased but had been "inconsistent". Since 2011 Oldham is one of the ten member authorities of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) which is a top tier local authority with responsibility for Transport, Health, Housing and Economic matters. The membership of the Combined Authority is drawn from the Leaders or Executive Mayors of each of the ten councils.needed In December 2012, Oldham was named ‘Most Improved Council’ at the Local Government Chronicle awards. A team of six experienced politicians and officers from the Local Government Association carried out another independent ‘peer review’ of Oldham Council in December 2013. Their report said: "There has been a remarkable transformation in Oldham in recent years, both in terms of the place and in having established an ambitious and effective council. The authority can be proud of what has been achieved." In February 2014 ex-Council Leader Jim McMahon was named ‘Council Leader of the Year’ by the LGiU thinktank who said his "strong leadership has helped lead to a dramatic improvement in service delivery and correlating significant improvement in resident satisfaction rates." The Council operates a "strong leader" cabinet model, under which the person elected to be the Leader of the Council personally holds all the executive decision making powers. It a matter of discretion for the Leader whether he/she exercises those powers personally or delegates them. Generally decisions are delegated to individual cabinet members or to the councils Cabinet. The Cabinet is made up of a Leader, a Deputy Leader and up to 9 councillors appointed by the Leader. The Cabinet is responsible for strategic decisions and recommends proposals for approval by full Council on the budget, Council Tax levels and the Council’s policy framework. Some decisions are delegated by council to District Executives. There are six districts containing between two and five wards Chadderton, Failsworth & Hollinwood, Oldham, Royton, Saddleworth & Lees and Shaw & Crompton. Membership of each District Executive is drawn from the elected councillors within each district.needed